ATV3, Blu-Ray, MakeMKV, Handbrake --- Audio?

Brand new to the ATV3 scene. Been using handbrake for a long time for ripping DVDs. Just got a blu-ray drive and started ripping blu-rays. Everything is working great except for audio.

I've been using the Apple TV 3 preset in handbrake. When I play the movie on the ATV3 there is no sound at all. I hold select, go to Audio, select Stereo, and stereo works great. Now get this... I go back into audio and select Surround, and the surround sound works.

Wtf is going on here? This has happened with HP: Goblet of Fire and Casino Royale.

I encoded Gob of Fire with iVI and everything works fine. I'd pay the $10 but I feel handbrake produces a better looking film(less studders).

I've about had it with apples "it just works" crap. I've had nothing but trouble with imovie and iPhoto working together, movies missing blah blah. I switched to apple years ago because I was blown away with how great everything worked together. It doesn't seem to anymore.

Ok /rant. Just sick of waiting 16 hours to find I have to piddle with the stupid audio. Any ideas?

I figured it out.. I am also using Subler to add metadata. I was checking both audio tracks, thinking that I had to do so in order to enable 5.1. Silly me.. you have to make sure it's disabled in order to enable it lol.

And yea... in a rage I tried setting up Plex and using my PS3 today... bleh. I'm back in love with Apple again.

I figured it out.. I am also using Subler to add metadata. I was checking both audio tracks, thinking that I had to do so in order to enable 5.1. Silly me.. you have to make sure it's disabled in order to enable it lol.

And yea... in a rage I tried setting up Plex and using my PS3 today... bleh. I'm back in love with Apple again.

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I was just going to tell you this before I saw your own reply... +1 on figuring it out.

Just out of curiosity, when in Subler you have disabled the AAC conversion for your surround sound right? Either make sure it is on AC3 pass-thru in the settings or manually change it. Either way, AC3 is the only surround sound that works on the Apple TV, AAC 6-channel gets downmixed to a weird 3.0 audio by the Apple TV.

Now I have a question. I ripped my first Blu Ray last night. I used MakeMKV then used Apple TV 3 preset in handbrake. The output file from Handbrake is 1920 x 816 i believe. In the video tab I set framerate as same as source. Should I have selected Keep Aspect Ratio in the picture tab? Or can I manually set width and height? I know I am late to the game, but I really like ripping the Blu-Rays...

Now I have a question. I ripped my first Blu Ray last night. I used MakeMKV then used Apple TV 3 preset in handbrake. The output file from Handbrake is 1920 x 816 i believe. In the video tab I set framerate as same as source. Should I have selected Keep Aspect Ratio in the picture tab? Or can I manually set width and height? I know I am late to the game, but I really like ripping the Blu-Rays...

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If you are using the aTV3 preset, you do not need to make any additional changes. I use the preset for my encodes and the only changes I make to the preset are: 1) use anamorphic strict for picture and 2) web optimize.

If you don't use anamorphic strict you may rarely run into a movie which yields a 720p format even thought the starting format is 1080p. Using strict eliminates that glitch. Web optimize moves some metadata at the end of the movie to the beginning. This causes the movie to load faster on the aTV (particularly helpful with BR's).

No need to edit the nitrate setting. Even though it says 30, that is just a maximum setting for compliance with the aTV. It will records same as source with that setting. Also, HB will automatically detect your movie format and trim the black areas accordingly, so there is no need for you to manually set the aspect ratio.

Sorry for the dumb question but, I love handbrake and have ripped dvd's for quite some time, I have many blu rays and a brand new iMac (which I love), I didn't know you could rip blu rays! Any info is appreciated. What kind of hardware do I need (I didn't know mac worked with blu ray) and do I need a special version of handbrake? ANY info is appreciated!! I would love to rip the blu rays! Also how much space does a typical movie take using APTV 3 settings on the hard drive (how many gig) what else do I need to know? THANKS A MILLION!!! And am I right, you can't play blu ray movies on a iMac right? Sorry for all the questions

Sorry for the dumb question but, I love handbrake and have ripped dvd's for quite some time, I have many blu rays and a brand new iMac (which I love), I didn't know you could rip blu rays! Any info is appreciated. What kind of hardware do I need (I didn't know mac worked with blu ray) and do I need a special version of handbrake? ANY info is appreciated!! I would love to rip the blu rays! Also how much space does a typical movie take using APTV 3 settings on the hard drive (how many gig) what else do I need to know? THANKS A MILLION!!! And am I right, you can't play blu ray movies on a iMac right? Sorry for all the questions

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You need a usb external blu-ray reader drive. They can be found for as low as $55-60.

The stable release of HB will transcode a BR, however, if you want regular or forced subtitles burned in, you need a Nightly release of HB. Not sure how you are ripping our dvd's but for BR's, I would recommend using MakeMKV decrypt and create an mkv file (can also be stored as an archive copy of the movie) which can then be used by HB.

A typical movie will be 5-10GB. Encoding time is super dependent on your iMac's processing power, but even with the most powerful I don't think anyone would call the process fast. I usually run 1 per night. However quality is excellent. Also be aware that your DTS or DTS-HD will be converted to Dolby Digital 5.1. No HD audio for the aTV.

Edit: I just noticed you said you had a new iMac, so your transcodes may be relatively rapid (a couple hours). Maybe someone else can give you a more accurate time estimate.

Also how much space does a typical movie take using APTV 3 settings on the hard drive (how many gig) what else do I need to know?

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This is dependent on you encode quality settings. A full rip from the blu ray will consume approximately 30-50GB. After encoding, those drop, but by how much involves what settings you use, or what preset.

Using the ATV3 setting you will likely get around a 10-15GB file. I have modified the ATV3 preset slightly and made my own. The changes I made were:

Change from a CQ encode to Variable Bit Rate 2-pass @ 5600kbps
Change to Strict Anamorphic
Change to Constant Frame rate, Same As Source (this one is completely optional, and doesn't really affect much of anything)

This will give you file sizes between 4GB-7GB and in my opinion look fantastic. I can slightly tell a difference between it and the source blu ray, but only if they are put side by side. The difference is so minimal at this setting that it is completely worth it to me to save the disk space over the ATV3 preset.

Just went back to look at my file sizes. Using the aTV3 preset, almost all of mine are 5-10GB. With most being around 8-10GB. I do have a few that are larger (up to 17GB) but as you know, it really depends on the movie.

Not sure I agree with your HB settings (except for Anamorphic Strict). But to each his own, and if it's giving you smaller files sizes and the quality you like...ride on!!! Quality is a very subjective thing and dependent on a lot of variables.

I ripped Looper last night. I used my custom built windows computer so i could take advantage of the sata connection and installed an internal Blu Ray drive and not have to use usb 2.0 on my 2011 mac mini. The MAKEMKV file was 44.4 GB and the handbrake file was 5.8 GB. Should the output file from Handbrake be 1920 x 1080 instead of 1920 x 816. That is what Handbrake shows as the resolution, I believe. I am currently at work and don't have access to the file. I have a quad core i7 930 processor with 6 GB of ram but have 7,200 rpm drives and it took almost 3 hours to do the whole process. A little over 2 hours in just handbrake. I only watched a few minutes of the finished product but the quality seems wonderful compared to a DVD rip. I am looking forward to watching the movie. It seemed like the blacks were not as pixilated (sic) as standard dvd rips.

I ripped Looper last night. I used my custom built windows computer so i could take advantage of the sata connection and installed an internal Blu Ray drive and not have to use usb 2.0 on my 2011 mac mini. The MAKEMKV file was 44.4 GB and the handbrake file was 5.8 GB. Should the output file from Handbrake be 1920 x 1080 instead of 1920 x 816. That is what Handbrake shows as the resolution, I believe. I am currently at work and don't have access to the file. I have a quad core i7 930 processor with 6 GB of ram but have 7,200 rpm drives and it took almost 3 hours to do the whole process. A little over 2 hours in just handbrake. I only watched a few minutes of the finished product but the quality seems wonderful compared to a DVD rip. I am looking forward to watching the movie. It seemed like the blacks were not as pixilated (sic) as standard dvd rips.

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I envy your HB transcode only being 2 hours.

Your output file dimensions are fine. It varies with the movie and how it is formatted (letterbox, 16:9, 4:3, etc).

I have a 2011 27" i7 3.4Ghz iMac and my Blu-ray encodes are taking on average about 80-90% of the movie length. Typically averaging somewhere between 30-40 FPS.

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That's quite a lot faster than my 2009 27" iMac (3.0 GHz C2D) - about four times the time of the runtime of the title using the Advanced preset. (The default Main preset is much, about 2.5 times faster)

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